economic development conveyance

Oregon’s congressional delegation is urging DOD to go ahead with an existing proposal to transfer thousands of acres at the former Umatilla Chemical Depot to the site’s local redevelopment authority at no cost, after learning the Army is reconsidering the plan. “We are writing to express our strong concerns about reports that the U.S. Army may seek to charge the communities around Umatilla to receive property as part of the ongoing Base Realignment Closure (BRAC) process at the Umatilla Army Depot,” Sens. Ron Wyden (D) and Jeff Merkley (D) and Rep. Greg Walden (R) said in a letter sent last week to Defense Secretary Charles Hagel. “If accurate, this would be a terribly disappointing development in a process that has otherwise been a model for transfers under the BRAC process …

The Army is reconsidering a plan to transfer thousands of acres at the former Umatilla Chemical Depot in northern Oregon to the site’s local redevelopment authority at no cost. The Columbia Development Authority, formerly the Umatilla Army Depot Reuse Authority, had planned on obtaining up to 9,500 acres via a no-cost economic development conveyance, with 3,000 acres designated for industrial development. The LRA doesn’t have the resources to purchase the site, reported the East Oregonian. “It was a pretty significant reversal from what we had been told up until last month,” project manager Don Chance told the authority’s board …

The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority (MRRA) last week paid the Navy $1.5 million as part of the revenue-sharing component of the economic development conveyance (EDC) for the former Naval Air Station Brunswick, the authority announced Tuesday. The payment, generated from property sales and leases at what is now Brunswick Landing and Topsham Commerce Park, represents MRRA’s second payment to the federal government stemming from the EDC this year. It follows a $3 million check it sent the Navy in June to pay off a note 10 years before it was due …

The State Department’s request to redraw the boundaries for splitting the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center between it and the District of Columbia in response to an effort by a Washington, D.C.-based pediatric hospital to obtain a parcel on the campus threatens the city’s redevelopment plans, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said last week. The Children’s National Medical Center obtained language in the House version of the fiscal 2015 defense authorization bill permitting the Army to convey 13.2 acres to the hospital at no cost for a biomedical research institute. The tract would come out of the 43.5-acre parcel slated to be conveyed to the State Department for a foreign missions center …

The LRA for the former Fort McPherson will need to satisfy several concerns from the Army and the Department of Housing and Urban Development before its sale of about two-thirds of the post to filmmaker Tyler Perry for a movie and television production campus can be realized. Before the Army approves the sale of 330 acres of the site located on the southwest edge of Atlanta, the McPherson Implementing Local Redevelopment Authority will need to demonstrate in its application for an economic development conveyance how Perry’s studio satisfies requirements that the installation will be converted to a use that creates jobs …

The South Shore Tri-Town Development Corp., the LRA responsible for redeveloping the former Naval Air Station South Weymouth, and its master developer continue to remain at odds over a plan for jump starting development at the base located outside of Boston. Starwood Land Ventures’ plan, which requires approval by the state Legislature, would strip authority from the LRA and shift responsibility for public services and tax revenue to the surrounding communities of Weymouth, Abington and Rockland. Starwood is trying to gain the support of the three towns and in recent weeks has been negotiating the language of proposed legislation with the mayor of Weymouth …